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inkling media

WTF? Friday: Why Fake it When You Can Have the Real Thing?

By Communications, Social Media

Today’s post is brought to you by Ken Mueller, the owner of Inkling Media, a Social Media and marketing company in Lancaster, PA.

You just can’t fake some things.WTF?

The other day I saw one of my friends post on Twitter:

NEWS FLASH: Fake tans don’t look real

And he’s right. You can spot a fake tan a mile away. A fake tan screams, “I’m vain and I was nowhere near the beach!”

Same with toupees.

Is it more embarrassing to go bald and show the world, or try to cover it up with a piece of “processed hair matter” that screams, “If I were bald you MIGHT look at me, but NOW you can’t take your eyes off of me and the monstrosity on my head, can you???”

Like any great marketing, they grab your attention, but for all the wrong reasons. People can see through fake. Fake might work for a while, but eventually you will be found out.

What does faking it look like in Social Media?

Claiming to be something you’re not – your credentials can be Googled, and what you say about yourself can be either confirmed or denied by those you have known over the years. And the more you share online, the more people can tell if you have no clue what you are talking about.

Claming to NOT be something you are – You’ve read the reviews on Yelp where you just know that the glowing review was written by the mother or spouse of the restaurant owner, or it might actually be an employee pretending to be a happy customer. On the other side, I’ve seen horrible reviews that just feel as if they were written by the competition. Don’t do it.

Astroturfing – This is when businesses create fake profiles of individuals who then comment on their blogs, Facebook pages, etc.. The idea is that you are “seeding” conversation, and making it look like you have a larger following than you do. This will bite you in the butt big time if you are ever caught…and odds are, you will be caught.

Don’t be stupid. You can try to fake things, but it’s very likely you’ll be found out, and the damage done can be pretty bad. Be real. Be who you are. By all means, filter yourself, but don’t try to give people the wrong impressions.

Sure we can beat the words “authenticity” and “transparency” to death, but they are incredibly important. It’s like signing up for a dating site and posting a picture of a beautiful man or woman, and claiming to be much younger than you are. That game only goes so far. Eventually you’ll have to go on a date and it will be obvious you’re lying.

Faking it never works. Well…almost never…

 

 

Defining your Brand Position: Hint; it’s Not About You

By Communications

A logo is a brand image; not the position or definition of the brand.

Ask five people in an organization what the company’s brand position is and you’re likely to get five different answers. Ask five of their customers and you’re likely to get the same answer all five times.

Why is that?

What your brand position is not:

  • It’s not your mission statement
  • It’s not your logo or your “look and feel”
  • It’s not your service or product offerings
  • It’s not what you think it is
My friend Ken Mueller of Inkling Media summed it up nicely when he wrote Word of Mouth is THEIR Mouth not Yours.  Similarly, your brand position is what your customers believe it to be.

Your Brand is the Promise you Make and Keep When Interacting with Your Community

First, let’s define your community. It is those you serve, those interested in what you do, your employees and by extension, often, the families and friends (and sometimes neighbors) of those employees. What’s the promise? It is what you do and how you do it. If the community values what you do, that’s part of your brand. If they think you’re awful at it, well, that’s part of your brand, too.

What’s your promise? Is it what you want it to be? If not, what’s your plan for making a change?

My Personal Chamber of Commerce Exists Online

By Communications, Public Relations

Guest post by Ken Mueller of Inkling Media in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Ken is awfully chipper in the morning. Sometimes he works from his front porch. I owe him lots of pie.

Let me tell you a little story. Back in February I received what sounded like a rather urgent voicemail message, followed up immediately with an email. Someone affiliated with our main area Chamber of Commerce was trying to contact me about an upcoming workshop at which they wanted me to present. It seems a key person within a particular Chamber business group follows me on various social channels and likes what I have to say, so he recommended me to speak about Social Media to that group.

Now, I speak to a lot of local groups, including some of the smaller area Chambers. But I was surprised by the invite from our larger Chamber because, well, I’m not a member. And I’m not a member for two reasons: One, I really can’t afford it, and two, I’m just not a big fan of how they operate in terms of networking events and what not. It’s just not my thing. Plus they’ve always seemed like a rather “closed” sorta group, and I’m not a fan of that. However, most of my clients happen to be members, so I do have a connection.

But, here they were inviting me, so I thought that this might be the start of something new and exciting. I spoke to the woman who called me, and then began a flurry of emails over the course of the next 5 hours. They were in a rush and needed to lock things up. I sent them topics, a bio, and went back and forth on all the details and it was a done deal. I’d be speaking to the group the following month.

Well, within an hour of confirming, I got an email from another woman who had been CC’d on all of the emails:

Thanks so much for your willingness and input to serve as an expert for our forum.   One thing I do need to address with you…you are not currently a member of The Chamber and I work hard to ensure that our presenters are members.  Would you be interested in joining?  I would be happy to discuss the opportunity with you.  Please let me know when would be a good time to talk.

Well, there it was. A pitch to join. I responded immediately, and explained that financially, this just wasn’t an option for me. I’m a relatively new business, sole breadwinner, two kids in college, no insurance, etc.  It’s just not something I can afford.

Then came the response, which began with a pitch for how affordable membership was, including the cost to join, which, in my mind, was still not affordable. And this:

We do have several social media experts who are members, and honestly I feel the obligation to support our members as they support TheChamber and have invested in us.  I do hope that you will be able to join us too.  I think we both can bring tremendous value to each other and I would love to offer you the opportunity to present at this forum.  I do hope you understand my position.

Now, I fully understand their position, but they knew I wasn’t a member up front. Why pursue me so hotly with words of flattery if they were going to pull the rug out from under me? Were they inviting me to speak as a ploy to get a new member? I really don’t know. But I responded that if being a member was a condition for speaking, then I would have to withdraw. End of story. I spent a good six hours working to provide them with the information they HAD to have for their website and promotional material, only to be left waiting at the altar. I never even heard the following day, or ever, from the woman who originally contacted me to speak. I wasn’t a member, therefore I was the weakest link: goodbye!

Needless to say, my feelings on the whole Chamber of Commerce thing haven’t gotten any more warm and fuzzy. On top of that, one of my clients recently wrote an article for the Chamber magazine, in which he mentioned me, only to have that mention stripped out, again presumably because I’m not a member.

What I don’t like is the mentality that Chamber members should only do business with Chamber members. It’s not a written ruleIt smacks of the smoke filled backrooms of the old boys’ clubs of a bygone era.

My personal Chamber of Commerce exists online. I am networking 24/7 on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and it is how I’ve built my business. For me, this form of open networking is genuine, not contrived. People aren’t walking around with one hand reaching to shake yours, and the other to hand you a business card. The relationships are real, and the ROI is fantastic.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-Chamber. I’m just a bit uncomfortable with their closed nature and how they choose to do business.

In the meantime, if you want to do business with me, you know where to find me. Let’s become friends and build a relationship, and then perhaps we might find ways of working together. Isn’t that the way it should be?

Guest Post: Today on Inkling Media

By Communications, Media, Social Media

Hi! *waves* I’m not really writing over here today because I have a guest post over here and I want you to go read it. It’s actually pretty hilarious (IMHO) and informational, about the importance of video.

Wait. What are you still doing here? Go read my guest post!

I have used video to do some nutty stuff, in part because it helps get me warmed up and comfortable in front of the camera. It’s weird being alone with a webcam, prepping to talk to the millions of you who no doubt, want to hear me wax philosophical about PR, marketing and social media. So go learn why it’s important and leave a comment with your thoughts so Ken Mueller, my host for the guest post, will be happy.

Video and YouTube: Heck, Yeah it’s Important

xoxoxo,

Mj

 

WTF? Friday: Whining and Blogging Don’t Mix

By Social Media

Today’s post is brought to you by Ken Mueller, the owner of Inkling Media, a small Social Media and marketing company in Lancaster, PA. He’s quite possibly the coolest guy I know, and deserves a lot of pie.

I have a secret about MJ: she’s a whiner.

Just the other day she told me “if I ever say to you, ‘oh, I’ll just get up early and do it’, make sure I stay up late instead. I’m a pathetic morning person”

Well, as I write this, it’s Thursday night, and MJ just said to me, via g-chat, “You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking I’ll get up early to write WTF Friday”

Now being the observant person I am, I realized this was a test. And thankfully I passed the test. Sorta. I responded, “I’m thinking that my very good and wonderful friend MJ should stay up and just do it tonight”. Her response?

She whined.

As in, “Wahhhhhhh”.

Yup.

And then suddenly, I went too far. I went from supportive Internet friend to enabler. I not only came up with an idea for her WTF Friday post (this one), but I offered to write it for her. Actually, I just started writing it while she was off getting pie. For her. Not me.

So here it is, a WTF Friday post about whiners who don’t want to blog, even though they know they should (that would be Marijean), and the importance of having others who hold you accountable (that would be me).

But seriously, having that community of people is important. Marijean and I both have others who push us and encourage us, and allow us to vent and complain, and in her case, whine. More often than not, she and I are the ones that hold each other accountable.

One of the keys to blogging is being consistent, especially when you have an anchor feature like WTF Friday that people expect to see.

Oh, and have I mentioned that Marijean and I have never met in person? In fact, we actually met online by accident. And yet we have been able to develop a friendship that allows us to push one another, and whole each other accountable with our work and blogging.

So what have we learned?

  1. MJ is a whiner
  2.  MJ gets pie. Ken works.
  3.  If you’re going to blog, you need to be consistent
  4.  It’s important to have others who can push you when you just don’t feel like blogging.

Blogging and Social Media are major commitments. You can’t just dabble. Make the commitment, and stick to it, and find others who can help you as you move forward.

Oh, and I wouldn’t mind a slice of Key Lime pie right about now…